With Google's stock hovering at record highs, Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt plans to sell more than 40 percent of his stock in the Internet search leader this year. If he were to sell all that stock at Google's current price, Schmidt would realize a $2.5 billion windfall.

Google's novel stock split will create a new class of shares with no voting rights. Confused? Google CEO Larry Page thought you might be, so he offered an explanatory note. Here's our read-between-the-lines translation of what he was really saying.

Google's shares have fallen 15% in the last three months while the S&P 500 has traded flat. This share price decline seems odd when contrasted with the spectacular success Google has been experiencing with its Android mobile OS. But there are good reasons Wall Street isn't impressed.

Google has been dead money for the last year -- up just 3% vs. 12.6% for the S&P 500. The Internet giant's biggest problem is its inability to diversify its revenue sources. Author Peter Cohan pulls out his Innovation Quotient to suggest how new CEO Larry Page might correct that.

Last month, 96 CEO changes were announced by U.S. based companies, reports job-services firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, among them the heads of Google and Advanced Micro Devices. The number is down 9% from December, but 8% higher than January 2010, when 89 CEOs left their corner offices behind.

As Larry Page takes the reins from CEO Eric Schmidt, the questions for investors are: Will Facebook keep gaining on Google? Or will Page steer it back to its original counter-corporate spirit, to embracing risk over short-term profits? Or have the risk-takers gone soft?

The Google co-founder will replace Eric Schmidt, who replaced Page in 2001 as CEO. Back then, because Google's investors believed the company needed a more mature leader. Now says Schmidt: "I believe Larry is ready." Oh yeah: Google also reported blowout earnings.

Google has again denied that it's building a Facebook-like service, this time in comments made by its head of mobile product development, reports Reuters. The executive, Hugo Barra, reiterated that Google's plans involve adding social media layers to its current products.

If you're waiting for Google to announce its new Facebook-beating social networking entry, you're going to be waiting awhile. CEO Eric Schmidt says Google's new plan is to gradually roll out some social networking features starting this fall, rather than launching a full-fledged standalone service.

Amid a fierce clash over the Net's next era, tech titans Google and Verizon crafted their own broadband policy plan and shined a light on what might be Washington's most ineffectual regulatory agency -- the FCC. Unknown to many, Google and Verizon worked on that plan since fall of 2008.

Wired magazine has just declared the demise of the wild, open web, eclipsed by discrete apps and walled gardens -- all controlled by powerful corporations like Apple. Here's how this dire vision dovetails with the Google-Verizon net neutrality deal.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin has emerged as the key force behind the search giant's decision to close its China-based search engine, citing his experience growing up in the Soviet Union. Google may suffer in the long run, but in this case, Brin has put principle above profit.